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{{short description|Ship converted for use as a detention center}}
{{more citations needed|date=December 2016}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}

[[File:Discovery at Deptford.jpg|right|thumb|The beached convict ship {{HMS|Discovery|1789|6}} at [[Deptford]]. Launched as a 10-gun [[sloop]] at [[Rotherhithe]] in 1789, the ship served as a convict hulk from 1818 until scrapped in February 1834.<ref name="Colledge, p. 109">Colledge, p. 109</ref>]]
[[File:Success prison hulk.jpg|upright|thumb| Prison ship ''Success''<ref>Colledge, p. 331</ref> at [[Hobart]], [[Tasmania]], Australia]]

A '''prison ship''', is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for [[convicts]], [[prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] or [[civilian internee]]s. Some prison ships were [[hulk (ship type)|hulked]]. While many nations have deployed prison ships over time, the practice was most widespread in 18th- and 19th-century Britain, as the government sought to address the issues of overcrowded civilian jails on land and an influx of enemy detainees from the [[War of Jenkins' Ear]], the [[Seven Years' War]] and the [[French Revolutionary War|French Revolutionary]] and [[Napoleonic War]]s.

==History==
{{globalize|section|date=February 2019}}
The terminology "hulk" comes from the [[Royal Navy]] meaning a ship incapable of full service either through damage or from initial non-completion. In England in 1776, during the reign of King George III, due to a shortage of prison space in [[London]], the concept of "prison hulks" moored in the Thames, was introduced to meet the need for prison space. The first such ship came into use on 15 July 1776 under command of Mr Duncan Campbell and was moored at [[Barking, London|Barking Creek]] with prisoners doing hard labour on the shore during daylight hours.<ref>The Book of Days vol. 2 p. 67 by R. Chambers</ref>

The vessels were a common form of [[internment]] in Britain and elsewhere in the 18th and 19th centuries. Charles F. Campbell writes that around 40 ships of the [[Royal Navy]] were converted for use as prison hulks.<ref name="hulks">{{cite book |title=The Intolerable Hulks: British Shipboard Confinement 1776–1857 |url=http://intolerablehulks.com |first=Charles F. |last=Campbell |publisher=Fenestra Books |edition=3 |date=2001 |isbn=978-1-58736-068-8}}{{dead link|date=May 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Other hulks included {{HMS|Warrior|1781|6}}, which became a prison ship at [[Woolwich]] in February 1840.<ref>Colledge, p. 375</ref> One was established at [[Gibraltar]], others at [[Bermuda]] (the ''Dromedary''), at [[Antigua]], off [[Brooklyn]] in [[Wallabout Bay]], and at [[Sheerness]]. Other hulks were anchored off [[Woolwich]], [[Portsmouth]], [[Chatham, Medway|Chatham]], [[Deptford]], and Plymouth-Dock/Devonport.<ref>[http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/historic/shipw/Williams.pdf Brad William, ''The archaeological potential of colonial prison hulks: The Tasmanian case study''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409200200/http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/historic/shipw/Williams.pdf |date=April 9, 2008 }}</ref> [[HMS Argenta|HMS ''Argenta'']], originally a cargo ship with no portholes, was acquired and pressed into service in [[Belfast Lough]] [[Northern Ireland]] to enforce the [[Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922]] during the period around the [[Irish Catholic]]s' [[Bloody Sunday (1920)]]. [[Privately held company|Private companies]] owned and operated some of the British hulks holding prisoners bound for [[penal transportation]] to [[Penal transportation|Australia]] and [[Penal transportation|America]].

[[HM Prison Weare|HMP ''Weare'']] was used by the British as a prison ship between 1997 and 2006.  It was towed across the Atlantic from the United States in 1997 to be converted into a jail. It was [[berth (moorings)|berth]]ed in [[Portland Harbour]] in [[Dorset]], [[England]].

[[Image: Ireland Island Woodcut.jpg|thumb|center|800px|1848 Woodcut of the [[Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda|Royal Naval Dockyard]], Ireland Island, Bermuda, showing four prison hulks]]

===Use during the American Revolutionary War===
{{Main|Prisoners of war in the American Revolutionary War}}
{{See also|Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument|HMS Jersey (1736)}}
[[File:Interior HMS Jersey 1855.jpg|thumb|Interior of the British prison ship [[HMS Jersey (1736)|''Jersey'']]]]
During the [[American War of Independence]], the British used a [[Prisoners of war in the American Revolutionary War|system of prison ships]] to imprison American prisoners of war. Many of these prison ships were moored in [[Wallabout Bay]] near [[New York City]], which was a major British stronghold during the conflict.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stiles |first=Henry Reed |author-link=Henry Reed Stiles|title=Letters from the Prisons and Prison-ships of the Revolution  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B20FAAAAQAAJ |publisher=Thomson Gale (reprint) |date=1865 |isbn=978-1-4328-1222-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Dring |first1=Thomas |last2=Greene |first2=Albert |title=Recollections of the Jersey Prison Ship |series=American Experience Series |volume=8 |publisher=Applewood Books |date=1986 |isbn=978-0-918222-92-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Taylor|first=George |title=Martyrs To The Revolution In The British Prison-Ships In The Wallabout Bay |year=1855 |isbn=978-0-548-59217-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Banks|first=James Lenox |title=Prison ships in the Revolution: New facts in regard to their management |year=1903}}</ref><ref name="Hawkins">{{cite book |last=Hawkins |first=Christopher |title=The adventures of Christopher Hawkins |publisher=Privately Printed |year=1864 |url=https://archive.org/details/adventureschris00bushgoog |access-date=2009-07-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Andros |first=Thomas |title=The old Jersey captive: Or, A narrative of the captivity of Thomas Andros...on board the old Jersey prison ship at New York, 1781. In a series of letters to a friend |publisher=W. Peirce |year=1833 |url=https://archive.org/details/oldjerseycaptive00andrrich |access-date=2009-07-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Lang |first=Patrick J. |title=The horrors of the English prison ships, 1776 to 1783, and the barbarous treatment of the American patriots imprisoned on them |publisher=Society of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick |year=1939}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Onderdonk |first=Henry |title=Revolutionary Incidents of Suffolk and Kings Counties; With an Account of the Battle of Long Island and the British Prisons and Prison-Ships at New York |publisher=Associated Faculty Press, Inc. |date=June 1970 |isbn=978-0-8046-8075-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=West |first=Charles E. |title=Horrors of the prison ships: Dr. West's description of the wallabout floating dungeons, how captive patriots fared |publisher=Eagle Book Printing Department |year=1895}}</ref> Conditions onboard these ships were abysmal due to overcrowding, the poor quality of the ships, mistreatment from guards and contaminated water and food. Waves of disease frequently spread through the ships, which combined with starvation killed 12,000 American prisoners of war. The bodies of those who died were mostly hastily buried along the shore,<ref name="monument">{{cite web |url=http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=13308 |title=Prison Ship Martyrs Monument |access-date=2009-07-22 |publisher=New York City Department of Parks & Recreation}}</ref> and were commemorated by the [[Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument]] in [[Fort Greene Park]], [[Brooklyn]].<ref name="monument"/>

Christopher Vail, of Southold, who was aboard one such prison ship, {{HMS|Jersey|British prison ship|6}} in 1781, later wrote:
<blockquote>
When a man died he was carried up on the forecastle and laid there until the next morning at 8 o'clock when they were all lowered down the ship sides by a rope round them in the same manner as tho' they were beasts. There was 8 died of a day while I was there. They were carried on shore in heaps and hove out the boat on the wharf, then taken across a hand barrow, carried to the edge of the bank, where a hole was dug 1 or 2 feet deep and all hove in together.
</blockquote>

In 1778, Robert Sheffield, of [[Stonington, Connecticut]], escaped from a British prison ship and told his story in the ''Connecticut Gazette'', printed July 10, 1778. He was one of 350 prisoners held in a compartment below the decks.
<blockquote>
The heat was so intense that (the hot sun shining all day on deck) they were all naked, which also served well to get rid of vermin, but the sick were eaten up alive. Their sickly countenances, and ghastly looks were truly horrible; some swearing and blaspheming; others crying, praying, and wringing their hands; and stalking about like ghosts; others delirious, raving and storming,--all panting for breath; some dead, and corrupting. The air was so foul that at times a lamp could not be kept burning, because of which the bodies were not missed until they had been dead ten days.<ref>{{cite book |title=American Prisoners of the Revolution |first=Danske |last=Dandridge |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7829 |access-date=2009-07-22 }}</ref>
</blockquote>

===Use in Napoleonic Wars===
Some British scholars{{who|date=June 2024}} have written that for prisoners of war held in hulks at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth, living conditions on board and the mortality amongst prisoners were misrepresented by the French for propaganda purposes during the Wars and by individual prisoners who wrote their memoirs afterwards and exaggerated the sufferings they had undergone. Memoirs such as [[Louis Garneray]]'s ''Mes Pontons'' (translated in 2003 as ''The Floating Prison''), Alexandre Lardier's ''Histoire des pontons et prisons d’Angleterre pendant la guerre du Consulat et de l’Empire'', (1845), Lieutenant Mesonant's ''Coup d’œuil rapide sur les Pontons de Chatam'', (1837) the anonymous ''Histoire du Sergent Flavigny'' (1815) and others, are largely fictitious and contain lengthy plagiarised passages. Reputable and influential historians such as Francis Abell in his ''Prisoners of War in Britain, 1756–1814'' (1914) and W. Branch Johnson in his ''The English Prison Hulks'', (1970) took such memoirs at their face value and did not investigate their origins.  This has resulted in the perpetuation of a myth that the hulks were a device for the extermination of prisoners and that conditions on board were intolerable.  The truth appears to be much less lurid and when the death rates of prisoners are properly investigated a mortality of between 5 and 8 per cent of all prisoners, both on shore and on the hulks seems to have been normal.<ref>''The Floating Prison'' by [[Louis Garneray]], translated with a commentary and notes by Richard Rose, Otterquill Books, e-book, 2012. Critiques found in the commentary sections of the work.</ref>

===Use to accommodate criminal prisoners===
[[File: The Fighting Temeraire, JMW Turner, National Gallery.jpg|thumb|right|''[[The Fighting Temeraire]] tugged to her last berth to be broken up'' by [[J. M. W. Turner]] (1838)]]
The first British use of a prison ship was the privately owned ''Tayloe'', engaged by the Home Office in 1775 via contract with her owner, Duncan Campbell.<ref name="Frost15">Frost 1994, p. 15</ref> ''Tayloe'' was moored in the Thames with the intention that she be the receiving point for all inmates whose sentences of transportation to the Americas had been delayed by the American Rebellion. Prisoners began arriving from January 1776. For most, their incarceration was brief as the Home Office had also offered pardons for any transportee who joined the Army or Navy, or chose to voluntarily leave the British Isles for the duration of their sentence.<ref name="Frost15"/>  By December 1776 all prisoners aboard ''Tayloe'' had been pardoned, enlisted or died, and the contract ceased.<ref name="Frost15"/>

====Thames prison fleet====
While the ''Tayloe'' was still in use, the British Government was simultaneously developing a longer-term plan for the use of transportees. In April and May 1776, legislation was passed to formally convert sentences of transportation to the Americas, to hard labour on the Thames for between three and ten years.<ref name="Frost1617">Frost 1994, pp. 16–17</ref> In July 1776, ''Tayloe''{{'}}s owner Duncan Campbell was named Overseer of Convicts on the Thames and awarded a contract for the housing of transportees and use of their labour. Campbell provided three prison ships for these purposes; the 260-ton ''Justitia'', the 731-ton former French frigate ''Censor'' and a condemned [[East Indiaman]], which he also named ''Justitia.''<ref name="Frost1617"/> Collectively, these three prison ships held 510 convicts at any one time between 1776 and 1779.

Conditions aboard these prison ships were poor, and mortality rates were high. Inmates aboard the first ''Justitia'' slept in groups in tiered bunks with each having an average sleeping space {{convert|5|ft|10|in|m|1}} long and {{convert|18|in|cm|0}} wide. Weekly rations consisted of biscuits and pea soup, accompanied once a week by half an ox cheek and twice a week by porridge, a lump of bread and cheese.<ref name="Frost21">Frost 1984, p. 21</ref> Many inmates were in ill health when brought from their gaols, but none of the ships had adequate quarantine facilities, and there was a continued contamination risk caused by the flow of excrement from the sick bays.<ref name="Frost21"/> In October 1776 a prisoner from Maidstone Gaol brought [[typhus]] aboard. It spread rapidly; over a seven-month period to March 1778, a total of 176 inmates died, or 28 percent of the prison ship population.<ref name="Frost24"/>

Conditions thereafter improved. In April 1778 the first ''Justitia'' was converted into a receiving ship, where inmates were stripped of their prison clothing, washed and held in quarantine for up to four days before being transferred to the other vessels.<ref name="Frost24">Frost 1984, p. 24</ref> Those found to be ill were otherwise held aboard until they recovered or died. On the second ''Justitia'' the available sleeping space was expanded to allow for just two inmates per bunk, each having an area {{convert|6|ft|m|1}} long and {{convert|2|ft|cm|0}} wide in which to lie.<ref name="Frost24"/> The weekly bread ration was lifted from 5 to 7 pounds, the supply of meat enhanced with the daily delivery of ox heads from local abattoirs, and there were occasional supplies of green vegetables.<ref name="Frost24"/> The effects of these improvements were evident in the prisoner mortality rates. In 1783 89 inmates died out of 486 brought aboard (18%); and by the first three quarters of 1786 only 46 died out of 638 inmates on the ships (7%).<ref>Frost 1984, p. 25</ref>

====Naval vessels====
[[File: Garneray - Portsmouth Harbour with Prison Hulks.jpg|thumb|Portsmouth Harbour with Prison Hulks, [[Ambroise Louis Garneray]]]]

Naval vessels were also routinely used as prison ships. A typical British hulk, the former [[ship of the line]] {{HMS|Bellerophon|1786|6}}, was decommissioned after the [[Battle of Waterloo]] and became a prison ship in October 1815.<ref>Colledge, p. 51</ref> Anchored off [[Sheerness]] in England, and renamed HMS ''Captivity'' on 5 October 1824, she usually held about 480 convicts in woeful conditions.<ref name="hulks"/> {{HMS|Discovery|1789|6}} became a prison hulk in 1818<ref name="Colledge, p. 109"/> at [[Deptford]].<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.56/Prison-hulks-on-the-River-Thames.html|title = Prison hulks on the Thames|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200121213335/http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.56/Prison-hulks-on-the-River-Thames.html|archive-date = 21 January 2020|website = Port Cities|access-date = 23 November 2007|url-status = live}}</ref> Another famous prison ship was {{HMS|Temeraire|1798|6}} which served in this capacity from 1813 to 1819.

===Use in Australia===
Hulks were used in many of the [[History of Australia (1788–1850)|colonies of Australia]], including New South Wales, South Australia, and Western Australia.

In New South Wales, hulks were also used as juvenile correctional centers.<ref name="adb.online.anu.edu.au">{{cite book|chapter-url=http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100654b.htm|title=Biography – Frederick William Neitenstein – Australian Dictionary of Biography|chapter=Neitenstein, Frederick William (1850–1921)|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University}}</ref> In 1813 a tender document was advertised in ''the Australian'' newspaper for the supply of bread to prisoners aboard a prison hulk in Sydney Harbour.<ref>Sydney Morning Herald 2 September 2013</ref>

Between 1824 and 1837 [[Phoenix (1798 ship)|''Phoenix'']] served as a prison hulk in Sydney Harbour. She held convicts awaiting transportation to [[Norfolk Island]] and [[Moreton Bay]]. One source claims she was Australia's first prison hulk.<ref>Bateson (1974), pp. 210–211.</ref>

''Vernon'' (1867–1892) and ''Sobraon'' (1892–1911) – the latter officially a "nautical school ship" – were anchored in Sydney Harbour. The commander of the two ships, Frederick Neitenstein (1850–1921), introduced a system of "discipline, surveillance, physical drill and a system of grading and marks. He aimed at creating a 'moral earthquake' in each new boy. Every new admission was placed in the lowest grade and, through hard work and obedience, gradually won a restricted number of privileges."<ref name="adb.online.anu.edu.au"/>

Between 1880 and 1891 the hulk ''[[Fitzjames (ship)|Fitzjames]]'' was used as a reformatory by the [[Government of South Australia|South Australian colonial government]] in [[Largs Bay, South Australia|Largs Bay]]. The ship kept about 600 prisoners at a time, even though it was designed to carry 80 or so crewmembers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://adelaidia.sa.gov.au/things/the-hulk-fitzjames |title=The Hulk Fitzjames |first=Nikki |last=Sullivan |publisher=Adelaidia – South Australian Government |access-date=17 March 2018}}</ref>

[[Marquis of Anglesea (1815 ship)|Marquis of Anglesea]] became Western Australia's first prison hulk following an accident in 1829.<ref>{{cite book |last=Goulding |first=Dot |year=2007 |title=Recapturing Freedom: Issues Relating to the Release of Long-term Prisoners Into the Community |publisher=Hawkins Press |isbn=978-1876067182 |page=14 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Marquis of Angelsea – Maritime Archaeology Databases |url=https://museum.wa.gov.au/maritime-archaeology-db/wrecks/id-1416 |website=museum.wa.gov.au |publisher=West Australian Museum}}</ref>

===World War I===
At the start of the war, cruise liners in [[Portsmouth Harbour]] were used to hold detained prisoners.<ref name =Sadden30>{{cite book |title=Keep the home fires burning The story of Portsmouth and Gosport in World War 1 |last=Sadden |first=John|year=1990 |publisher=Portsmouth Publishing and Printing| isbn=1-871182-04-2 |pages=30–31 }}</ref>

===Russian Civil War===
{{Main|Death barge}}

===Nazi Germany===
[[File: Cap Arcona 1.JPG|thumb|''[[Cap Arcona]]'', a passenger liner, was converted by Nazi Germany to hold concentration camp prisoners]]

[[Nazi Germany]] assembled a small fleet of ships in the [[Bay of Lübeck]] to hold concentration camp prisoners. They included the passenger liners ''[[Cap Arcona]]'' and {{SS|Deutschland|1923|2}}, and the vessels {{SS|Thielbek|1940|2}}, and {{SS|Athen|1936|2}}. All were destroyed on May 3, 1945, by [[RAF]] aircraft whose pilots erroneously believed them to be legitimate targets; most of the inmates were either killed by bombing or strafing, burned alive, drowned while trying to reach the shore, or killed by the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] guards.

===Post-WWII uses===
====Chile====
Reports from [[Amnesty International]], the [[US Senate]] and [[Rettig Report|Chilean Truth and Reconciliation Commission]] describe [[Esmeralda (BE-43)|''Esmeralda'' (BE-43)]] as a kind of a floating prison for political prisoners of the [[Augusto Pinochet]] administration from 1973 to 1980. It is claimed that probably over a hundred persons were kept there at times and subjected to hideous treatment,{{ref|centro}} among them the British priest [[Miguel Woodward]].<ref>[http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias_v2/site/artic/20080503/pags/20080503165042.html Niegan libertad en crimen de sacerdote en la Esmeralda] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110527105421/http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias_v2/site/artic/20080503/pags/20080503165042.html |date=2011-05-27 }}, ''[[La Nación (Santiago)|La Nación]]'', 3 May 2008 {{in lang|es}}</ref>

====Philippines====
In 1987, Colonel [[Gregorio Honasan]], leader of various coups d'état in the Philippines was captured and was imprisoned in a navy ship then temporarily converted to be his holding facility. However, he escaped after convincing the guards to join his cause.

====United Kingdom====
[[File: HMS Maidstone.jpg|thumb|{{HMS|Maidstone|1937|6}} (pictured here in Algiers in the Second World War), a prison ship which docked at [[Belfast]] and where many internees were sent during [[The Troubles]]]]
{{HMS|Maidstone|1937|6}} was used as a prison ship in [[Northern Ireland]] in the 1970s for suspected [[Republicanism in Ireland|Republican]] [[Paramilitary|paramilitaries]] and [[non-combatant]] [[activist]] supporters. The former president of the Republican political party [[Sinn Féin]], [[Gerry Adams]], spent time on ''Maidstone'' in 1972. He was released in order to take part in peace talks.

In 1997 the [[United Kingdom Government]] established a new prison ship, [[HM Prison Weare|HMP ''Weare'']], as a temporary measure to ease prison overcrowding. ''Weare'' was docked at the disused Royal Navy dockyard at [[Isle of Portland|Portland]], [[Dorset]]. ''Weare'' was closed in 2006.

The barge ''[[Bibby Stockholm]]'', planned to house [[Modern immigration to the United Kingdom#Refugees and asylum seekers|asylum seekers]], has been called a "floating prison".<ref>{{cite news |title=What will life be like on the UK's first migrant barge? |work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-66099583 |access-date=19 July 2023}}</ref>

====United States====
[[File:Vernon C Bain Correctional Center.jpg|thumb|The [[Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center]]]]
In the United States, the [[Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center]] was a prison barge operated by the [[New York City Department of Correction]] as an adjunct to [[Rikers Island]], opened in 1992. However, it was built for this purpose rather than repurposed.<ref>Wacquant, Loïc (2009) [http://www.dukeupress.edu/books.php3?isbn=978-0-8223-4422-3 ''Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415095507/http://www.dukeupress.edu/books.php3?isbn=978-0-8223-4422-3 |date=April 15, 2009 }}.  Durham: Duke University Press. p. 124</ref> It was the largest operational prison ship facility in the United States during its operation.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Guinness Book of World Records 2014|last=Glenday|first=Craig|year=2013|isbn=978-1908843159|pages=[https://archive.org/details/guinnessworldrec0000unse_r3e7/page/133 133]|publisher=Guinness World Records Limited |url=https://archive.org/details/guinnessworldrec0000unse_r3e7/page/133}}</ref>

In June 2008 ''[[The Guardian]]'' printed claims by [[Reprieve (organisation)|Reprieve]] that US forces are holding people arrested in the [[War on Terror|Global War on Terrorism]] on active naval warships, including the {{USS|Bataan|LHD-5|6}} and {{USS|Peleliu|LHA-5|2}}, although this was denied by the [[US Navy]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/02/usa.humanrights |title=US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships |first1=Duncan |last1=Campbell |first2=Richard |last2=Norton-Taylor |date=June 2008 |access-date=2009-07-22 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |location=London}}</ref> The United States subsequently admitted in 2011 to holding terrorist suspects on ships at sea, claiming legal authority to do so.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/brennan-al-qaeda-in-yemen-is-gaining-strength-as-a-powerful-domestic-insurgency/2011/09/08/gIQA4ljZCK_blog.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=2011-09-08 | title=Brennan: Al-Qaeda offshoot in Yemen gaining strength as a powerful domestic insurgency | first=Karen | last=DeYoung}}</ref> The [[Libya]]n national [[Abu Anas al-Libi]] who worked as a computer specialist for [[al-Qaeda]] was imprisoned in the {{USS|San Antonio}} for the [[1998 United States embassy bombings]].<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2013-10-08 |title=Warships are the new interrogation 'black sites' |url=https://nypost.com/2013/10/08/warships-are-the-new-black-sites-for-terror-interrogations/ |access-date=2023-06-13 |language=en-US}}</ref>
[[File:USS San Antonio (LPD-17) deploy.jpg|thumb|[[USS San Antonio|USS ''San Antonio'']] amphibious transport dock]]

In 2009 the US Navy converted the main deck aboard the supply ship {{USNS|Lewis and Clark|T-AKE-1|6}} into a [[Military prison|brig]] to hold pirates captured off the coast of [[Somalia]] until they could be transferred to Kenya for prosecution. The brig was capable of holding up to twenty-six prisoners and was operated by a detachment of Marines from the [[26th Marine Expeditionary Unit]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/02/navy_piratebrig_022309w/ |title=Crew adjusts to unique duty: Hijacker jail – Navy News, news from Iraq – Navy Times |access-date=2009-05-13 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20090513203325/http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/02/navy_piratebrig_022309w/ |archive-date=2009-05-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60602|title=Civilian ship repurposed to help anti-piracy effort|work=Stars and Stripes|access-date=13 April 2010|archive-date=22 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090422165543/http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60602|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2009-02-12-voa45-68713712/409666.html]</ref>

==In literature==
[[Charles Dickens]]' novel ''[[Great Expectations]]'' opens in 1812 with the escape of the convict [[Abel Magwitch]] from a hulk moored in the [[Thames Estuary]]. In fact, the prison ships were largely moored off [[Upnor]] in the neighbouring [[River Medway]], but Dickens used artistic licence to place them on the Thames.<ref>''Great Expectations'', Penguin English Library, 1965, Notes, p. 499</ref>

French artist and author [[Ambroise Louis Garneray]] depicted his life on a prison hulk at Portsmouth in the memoir ''[[s:fr:Mes pontons|Mes Pontons]]''.

==See also==
* [[British prison hulks]]
* [[Convict ship]]
* [[Philip Morin Freneau]]
* [[Ambroise Louis Garneray]]
* [[Hell ship]]
*[[Bagne of Toulon]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
*Bateson, Charles (1974) ''The Convict Ships, 1787–1868''. (Sydney). {{ISBN|0-85174-195-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Colledge |first=J.J. |title=Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy From the Fifteenth Century to the Present |location=Annapolis, Maryland |publisher=[[United States Naval Institute|Naval Institute Press]] |year=1987 |isbn=0-87021-652-X}}
* {{cite book |last=Frost |first=Alan |title=Botany Bay Mirages: Illusions of Australia's Convict Beginnings |location=Carlton, Victoria|publisher=Melbourne University Press |year=1984 |isbn=0522844979}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Prison ships}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080921202422/http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/etext05/7pris10.htm ''American Prisoners of the Revolution'' by Danske Dandridge] A [[Project Gutenberg]] document.
* [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/orig/north5.html British prison ships]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050921074035/http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs425a,0,6698945.story?coll=ny-lihistory-navigation Long Island History]
* [http://intolerablehulks.com/ Charles F. Campbell, The Intolerable Hulks (2001)]{{dead link|date=May 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
* [http://members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/convicts/res-06.html Convicts to Australia, Prison hulks] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925071547/http://members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/convicts/res-06.html |date=25 September 2020 }}
* {{cite web | url = http://dictionaryofsydney.org/organisation/vernon_nautical_training_ship | title = Vernon nautical training ship | access-date = 9 October 2015 | author = Mark Dunn | date = 2008 | work = Dictionary of Sydney | publisher = Dictionary of Sydney Trust}}<nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Creative Commons license|CC-By-SA]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>. Nautical training school, on a ship moored in Sydney Harbour, which aimed to rehabilitate and train juvenile offenders.
* [http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=13308 New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Prison Ship Martyrs Monument]

{{Incarceration}}

[[Category:Prison ships| ]]
[[Category:Military prisons|ships]]
[[Category:Naval ships]]